Clash by Night 05/30/23

The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray

Fritz Lang’s wavering American career hit a high point in this adaptation of a Clifford Odets play with a four-cylinder star cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan and Marilyn Monroe, all billed above the title. It’s a tawdry love triangle in a fishing town, where infidelity brings violence to the surface. Monroe’s younger character — “Twenty, the age of miracles” — has a conflicting view of matrimonial harmony. Lang holds up his end, but the actors’ handling of the stylized Odets dialogue is what makes the movie work. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
05/30/23